Image forming apparatuses capable of sequentially carrying and reading a plurality of documents set in an automatic document carrying device are conventionally known.
These image forming apparatuses recently achieve multifunctionality through digitalization and systematization and more complex functions are achieved through connection to a network.
If a one-sided document is set upside down or a blank sheet is mixed in and set in such an image forming apparatus, a blank sheet is copied or transmitted.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-313664 discloses that a user is urged to preview a created image to check whether document contents are reproduced before facsimile transmission.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-116665 discloses that if a blank page exists among read documents, the presence of a blank page is reported and the reported page is read again before copying or transmission is performed.
However, if a created image is different, rereading must be performed until a correct image is acquired in the case of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-313664.
The presence of a blank page is reported after reading documents and a user must take out the page to check whether this page is set by mistake or originally a blank page or erroneously judged as a blank page in the case of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-116665.